Page 68 of Married to Number 22
Because tonight he gives me more than a glimpse.
Tonight, his quiet words reach my ears just as the fasten seatbelt sign dings on overhead.
“If you find a woman who lets you in deep enough to see the beauty inside her, to know the soft underbelly of her, to understand the puzzle pieces that make up the bigger picture of her soul…” He sighs, yanks his headphones out of his bag. “Don’t let that go—no matter how hard she tries to push you away.”
“I—”
But he doesn’t give me any more than that.
Just puts in his earbuds and closes his eyes.
Leaving me to know…he’s unequivocally right.
Which is why I have no plans of letting Luna go.
Twenty-Six
Luna
I closethe spreadsheet I’ve been working on—an inventory of the donations the shelter received over the last two weeks—and stretch.
My eyes are bleary and my shoulders ache from being at the computer.
But the inventory is complete and now we can figure out what we need to order to flesh out the rest of our supplies.
The non-profit I work at is part shelter, part food pantry, part job training.
We function mostly on the backs of our volunteers, aside from a skeletal staff of psychologists, social workers, and…our graduates—those who’ve moved from seeking aid to providing it.
It’s great—reallygreat actually.
The non-profit pays for most of its expenses through a cafe that’s partnered with Molly’s Bakery, a longtime staple here in the Bay. And our girls who go into that program learn everything from washing dishes to ordering inventory to running a cash register to making a business plan for their future endeavors.
We have something for everyone.
And all the profits—after payroll, because the girls need money to start a life after the shelter—go right back in to funding the shelter and its programs.
It’s going so well, in fact, that we’re getting ready to open another location—ifwe can get the fundraising in line.
That’s a problem for another day, though.
It’s late, so much later than I normally ever stay here at work, but I wanted to clear the decks.
Because Aiden has tomorrow off.
And we’re going to share “our surprise” with his family.
So, evenifAiden was already back from his road trip and I was in bed with him, I likely wouldn’t be sleeping anyway.
Before I showed up on his doorstep, it had been more than a decade since I saw him and his family.
Then I barely blinked before I was naked in his bed, before his family was there hauling me along to breakfast and the game…something I ruined because I panicked and ran away, making a scene, making it about me, making a terrible first impression the second time over?—
Now we’re going to announce that we’remarried?
God, there’s no way I’ll sleep tonight.
The thought of disappointing Kathy and Matt, Carrie and Ralph and Dave…of disappointing Aiden…
